Scab labour during the COVID crisis

[Gramsci]

I am in my local mutual aid covaid group. Which is interesting. Bit different from State run voluntering.

And has possibly the potential to do what Proper Tidy was posting about in post25. Possibly. Very early days yet.

 

[8ball]

I think it's sound in this particular set of circumstances but should be used when a normality returns to lay out a new set of demands - we the public did this, we did this, we did this, we've faced social damage and financial ruin and throughout it all we looked after each other. Now this means we have this, we have this, we have this. Jobs, homes, public services, social protection, so on. Build from it.

Perfectly put.
I'm not optimistic, though.

 

[8ball]

In the past, Contrarian journalists built lucrative careers making points like that. Now the food on their children's plates is being scraped off and scoffed by internet blacklegs like you: ((Brendan O'Neill))

Liked for bitchiness.

 

[Gramsci]

I also think if government wants an army of volunteers then there should be code of conduct on how they are treated and the rights that they have.

Its assumed volunteering is simple and straightforward. But its not.

 

[CNT36]

I wouldn't totally dismiss the OP.

This is an issue before the pandemic. Cuts in youth services meant closure of my local adventure playground. Due to local volunteers its re opened.

There are several volunteer run youth programmes in my area.

Run by volunteers along with small charity funding to employ trained youth workers.

imo Voluntary work is work. Its just that its not paid for. Its doing stuff that needs doing to keep society going.

Im a volunter from before this pandemic. Now volunteering has become front page news.

tbf Im not all that happy that Im a voluntering some of my time to help keep an adventure playground going. Youth services should be run by paid staff. Given I live in capitalist society volunteering doesn't pay the bills.

I also think local and now central Government are over keen ( in some ways) to encourage volunteers. It gets them free labour.

There's a big difference between people like you doing shit that needs doing and otherwise wouldn't get done and a scab though.
Here's a poorly remembered anecdote. A mates mum was involved in voluntary work. I can't remember the exact details but the council were involved in providing a few bits and pieces but she ran the whole thing working for free. She quit and the council decided to advertise for two staff on about 15 grand each to replace her.

Eta I think she set the whole thing up with the council getting involved later on.

 

[dylanredefined]

Get the squadies to do it. If we're going to pour all that endless money into the military get the doing something useful. Though not in uniform please

Fuck off. If I got to move boxes I will wear the uniform I have been issued with. Though no seems to have a use for my unit at present. Rolled out the gates once only to get the message no longer needed.

 

[CNT36]

Just stumbled on this-

The Trouble with Volunteering

Over the past decade Tory governments have used voluntary work as cover for their cutbacks. We can't let them do it again now – it's time to properly fund public services.

tribunemag.co.uk

 

[JuanTwoThree]

The demarcation between what is volunteered and what government does seems very arbitrary. The RNLI is almost completely funded by donations but if it said, or people said, 'fuck this, this should be funded by taxes and run by employees' then grudgingly it would be. You could say it lets the government off the hook by its existence. I do.

Trinity House, though ostensibly a charity, is funded by a compulsory levy on shipping.

The Coast Guard "is currently not a military force nor law enforcement agency, with coastal defence being the responsibility of the Royal Navy, law enforcement being the responsibility of the local territorial police force and maritime border control being the responsibility of Border Force. However, the organisation is a uniformed service"


and yet their respective remits overlap.

 

[likesfish]

Get the squadies to do it. If we're going to pour all that endless money into the military get the doing something useful. Though not in uniform please

Sooo your expecting people as part of a uniformed service driving specialist vehicles to deliver prescriptions but not wear appropriate PPE?
Because a warrior AFV makes a great delivery vehicle?

 

[Gramsci]

Just stumbled on this-

The Trouble with Volunteering

Over the past decade Tory governments have used voluntary work as cover for their cutbacks. We can't let them do it again now – it's time to properly fund public services.

tribunemag.co.uk

Thanks for this. I agree with all of it. Its a very good article.

Volunterring is slipping into being part of business plans to save money.

Whilst exhorting people to volunteer the system ( benefit sanctions, increased use of "flexible" labour practises) has meant that burden of volunteering has fallen on the elderly. Precisely those told to stay in as risk group.

One side of volunteering is the social side. Doing something that is emotionally rewarding for ones local community. Something that is not alienating like work. This Ive found more difficult due to the reasons given in article about changes to how work is structured and benefits.

I have found I volunteer a few hours a month. But the playgroud we have re opened actually depends on two retired/ semi retired people who spend equivalent of three/ four days a week on managing it. Which requires them to be around during the day.

As I said recently to one of them if one of you gets ill its possible the whole thing could collapse. The article says this about foood banks.

As the article says funding depends on filling out lengthy forms showing outcomes. All very time consuming and requires skills that not everyone has. No suppport from local Council for any of this.

Its great that people want to help. But imo people should not be having to make PPE for hospital workers.

Its a good article but there another issue ( in fact several ) about volunteering. As the article says its now being promoted as do your bit as part of the "war" effort. This is very top down. I see this in the Council. They like it if you volunteer but if one starts to voice opinions / comment one gets a sullen resentment half the time.

The way my local Council ( supposedly a Coop Council Lambeth) are presenting volunteering is the same as this government. You are the army we are in charge.

Nothing about how you would like to see how this society is going to move on from this pandemic.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

All the people I know that have volunteered, are currently on furlough leave from the usual jobs, and are getting 80% of their usual wages paid by the government.

None of them are 'fuckwits'.

Ehrm, I’m a volunteer, so at least one is...